Hey all,

So my car's starting to show signs of mushrooming on the shock towers, mini dealer mechanic told me it's pretty early on, so I want to be preventive about it so I hopefully don't have to do any major repair down the road.

I've researched the under tower plates, and those seem effective, but a bit high priced for basic metal plates. I'm leaning towards the two birds one stone option of install a strut bar that also reinforces the strut towers.

The Cravenspeed strut tower defenders look pretty beefy, but I'm not a big fan of looks of the strut bar model, plus it's the most expensive of the bunch.

There's also the M7 strut brace, which I've heard good recommendations on.

And finally I found the Way Motor Works strut brace, which is pretty cost effective and looks the best out of the 3 in my opinion. The strut plates look pretty beefy as well. Has anyone had any experience with this strut brace?

Would love any feedback on these strut braces if you've had experience with them and mushrooming strut towers. Thanks!

 

Would like to have an engineer chime in as I know the M7 and it appears the WMW do not have bolt holes but rather elongated slots for the bolt-to-plate attachment. You are thereby placing the stress on a moveable connection. If I remember correctly the torque setting on the M7 is something like 30 ft lbs. Is 30 ft lbs enough to keep the bar from moving under the bolts during cornering stress? I know that in construction the slot is there specifically to allow movement in the connection. Does the lateral force overcome the vertical attachment force?

The plates that attach from below are suppose to throw the wheel camber off but if you are not autocrossing then I don't know if that is a major issue.

It may come down to your budget and what you want the reinforcement to look like. I went with the below on my R53 and bought the M7 at Christmas as they had a real good sale going on for my R52.

 

Oh nice, so you have both the under tower plates and the M7 bar? I was under the impression the strut tower bolts weren't long enough for that.

 

No, my R53 had the below mount, my R52 has the M7 tower plates and bar.

 

I have the M7 brace and it works just fine. If I had it to do over, I'd probably get the WMW brace. The bar to plate attachment looks the same as my M7 brace and the multiple piece design isn't that convienient. Most of the time, if I need to do some work under the brace, I take the whole bar off.

 

I went with the VIP combo because of the small design details in the plates. The recesses for the strut towers are contoured instead of a square machined edge and the plates are full thickness for the bolts. Custom machined t-nuts are provided to reach the studs instead of using extensions and nut, or machining a recess to down into the plate. I had to wet the hood pad several times to get it to compress around the strut bar so the hood wouldn't bulge at the back. If your pad is worn or missing you probably won't have to do this.

 

I also have the M7 brace and plates, no issues.

 

That looks really nice! Haven't heard of that bar before, where did you get it from?

 

I've got the M7 brace on mine courtesy of the previous owner. Mushrooming was evident on the tower and the strut bar plates.

Nothing a block of wood, a hammer, and some coilovers couldn't fix though.
The mounting plate on the coilovers is much thicker than the stock mount, which will help a bunch.

 

I think they're only available directly from VIP Custom Parts who also sell parts on EBay. The plates can be purchased separately and the bar added later, but it might cost a little more that way. From what I remember they are designed and made by a machinist from Arizona who was also a MINI owner. He also has other MINI products on his site.

 

I have the M7 and like it. After using strut braces with other cars I don't find this one all that of a problem to remove when working on the car.


But what about your front struts?? If you have >60-70k miles on them this can be as much of the problem as poor roads. I put Bilstein B4's and M7 strut brace at same time after I pounded the strut towers down. No issues 10k miles later

 

This is correct. My 2004 R53 JSW came with the under tower plates and I tried to put an M7 bar on. Didn't work. Bolts too short.

 

Using any of the under tower plates causes you to loose stud length and that will keep you from being able to install the top plates.
So you only need the top plates to prevent mushrooming. If you already have mushrooming you need to replace the strut mount then install the plates.

With our WMW strut bar we solved some of the issues with other strut bars as we used studs to mount the bar to real billet plates. This way when you remove it to do an oil change you don't unscrew anything in the aluminum, just take the bar nuts off. We found on the M7 bar constantly taking the bar off for service would wear out the plates and ruin them so you couldn't reinstall the bar later.

 

Reviving an old thread, so here goes.
Way - If I already have some mushrooming, you suggest replacing strut mounts, reshaping towers and the install either the top or lower plates?
I was thinking about installing a strut brace, cabrio braces, upgraded rear sway bar and then maybe later the TSW X-brace. Are these all combined an overkill? The car is a DD with occasional autocross.

 

 

Yes the proper repair is to replace the mushroomed strut mount, bang down the tower if need and install a top plate.
I don't use or recommend under tower plates as they will raise the ride height and reduce the amount of camber you have. Plus they are much more work to install.
That will fix and prevent mushrooming.
Now adding a rear sway bar will be the biggest bang for the buck in handling so it's a no brainer to go with it
https://www.waymotorworks.com/wmw-rear-sway-bar.html

The cabrio braces are not a bad upgrade, but the biggest improvement I've seen from this is reducing dash rattles.
https://www.waymotorworks.com/oem-ca...oss-brace.html

And the X brace does the best at actually stiffening the chassis
https://www.waymotorworks.com/tsw-xbrace.html

These are def not overkill and actually very common and regular mods to do to a daily car that will net you good bang for the buck, and make the drive a little better.